Category: YogaMOOC

Week 6 post: Thank You YogaMooc

I feel great today. I have completed the 6 weeks course and it was an amazing experience. I want to thank #YogaMooc staffs and teachers who have given me and thousands of other new yogis a perfect introduction to Yoga and the desire of learning and practicing and enjoying more and more.

So, I´d like to make a non exhaustive summary of the benefits of those 6 weeks:

1. Less pain in my neck

I have neck and back pain since a few years. Specific Yoga practice for neck healing has helped me a lot. I am doing the practice every week or when I feel tension in my neck.

2. More flexibility, more energy, more strength

What I love about Yoga is that my entire body is working out all the time and, surprisingly I am able now to realize muscle development exercises like pull-ups or push-ups which were impossible for me before.

3. Just breathe

Nowadays I focus so much more on my breath. It really helps me when I am feeling stressed or when I cannot sleep. Breathing is an excellent medicine!

4. Meditation 

I need my meditation every day! Before YogaMooc I was already meditating but I discovered new kinds of meditation which are amazing (like Dr Siegel´s meditation practices), so I love practicing different meditations according to the way I feel or what I want for the day. I feel so peaceful and calmed when meditating, love it!

Changes take time, and I know that this is only the beginning of my Yoga journey, but I am very happy to already see the benefits, with less than 2 months practice.

And it doesn’t mean that I feel great everyday, that I am always in a good mood and never feel upset when stuck in traffic, it means that I am more aware of what is happening, I listen to my body and my emotions to react differently, in a way which makes me feel better. 

Be well 🙂

 

 

 

 

Week 5 Post: one goal, many benefits!

The last 5 weeks had been amazing. When I started the #YogaMooc course, I wasn’t sure what to expect, all that I wanted was to learn a little bit more about Yoga.

And I did, of course I did. I have learned a lot about Yoga and Meditation. I realized that during a weekend in Cancun last week, I took three Yoga class and I didn’t have to watch the teacher all the time because I knew the postures, I knew how to breath. My flexibility and my strength were so much better… it felt truly great.

My second goal was to finish the YogaMooc course and so far so good even if I’ll have to wait one more week to be sure I complete it 🤨 But I still feel 100% committed to the course and to Yoga in general. I am still doing some cardio and weights but I cannot go to the gym without practicing Yoga for 20 or 30 minutes.

So I do see a huge progress regarding my goals but I have also noticed so many other benefits I’d like to share:

  • I am not checking Facebook every time I have 5 minutes to lose. I prefer to write on my blog, or to breathe or simply being in the present moment, feeling it very strongly
  • I am able to control my emotions so much better, I feel more relaxed and happy
  • I am actually working on my blog, which was a goal I had for this year. Before YogaMooc I felt I wasn’t ready for it but the course gave me courage and I am not afraid anymore to share (even if I know that only a few people are reading my posts 😝)
  • The Mind map exercise helped me so much, not only to describe Yoga but also to prepare how I want to focus and share my new life challenge blog (still working on it)
  • Finally I am improving a lot my English! Listening, reading, writing… excellent exercise for me 😊

Yoga and meditation are great but a totally renewed life is even better, and every day I feel closer to what I want for myself and this is the best reward I could get.

Be well 🌸

Yoga and Playa: my week-end in Cancun

I just had the most amazing weekend. I went to the Caribbean Sea with my mom for a nice few days at Villa del Palmar hotel, in Cancún, Mexico.

I had planned to spend my days relaxing, eating well, sleeping, swimming and practice Yoga, for my #YogaMooc course obviously 😉

We arrived on Friday afternoon and after having lunch, we decided to go and see the great hotel amenities. I chose well, we were in the perfect place!

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While visiting the gym, we were informed of a Yoga class that takes place every morning at 9, near to the beach. I had absolutely no idea about this activity so it was a really excellent surprise.

So I’ve been practicing yoga 3 days in row, with a great teacher and an amazing view.

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Thanks to YogaMooc, I knew most of the postures and I felt my breath very easy and controlled. The meditation part was the best, and I loved that they put on our forehead a wet towel, perfumed with orange blossom essential oil.

After the Yoga class, we had a nice breakfast: mushroom quesadillas, fruits, jugo verde and coffee. Very necessary!

At noon, we went to the beach, and spent the afternoon swimming in the sea and in the pool, reading and relaxing.

To finish the day, 30 minutes cardio at the gym, some relaxing yoga postures, vapor, jacuzzi and massage at the spa and a light dinner (soup, fish and a glass of wine).

15 minutes meditation before going to bed, and I felt asleep in just a few minutes! 8 hours sleeping and wake up to have another perfect day!

I didn’t want the weekend to come to an end! But it eventually happened obviously.

I hardly recommend this kind of weekend almost once a year, your body will appreciate it so much!

Be well

Week 4 Post: don’t stress, just breathe?

This week, #YogaMooc lectures and exercises were mostly focused on STRESS.

And I believe I am quite a stressed person so it was nice to read and practice about calming down.

At the beginning of the week, I’ve made my list of common staffs stressing me a lot:

1. When I turn off my alarm clock while asleep and get up very late for work.

When there is so much traffic that I literally feel I am in a parking lot.

When I am asked to do something I wasn’t planning to do (at work or at home)

When I spend too much time in supermarket and feel tired

When I know that I still have a lot to do before having dinner and going to bed
and I feel hungry and sleepy

When I have to wait, in airport or for someone or because there’s a lot of people at the bank

What are my body sensations?

2. My heart beats very fast
I feel dizzy
I want to eat all my nails
I cry or get in a very bad mood

Then I wrote this phrase to help me in a stressful situation:

3. I commit to listening to my body and feeling my stress so I will be able
to calm down and take care of myself

And finally I’ve prepared my routine whenever I want to stop the stress to take power over me:

4. Recognize the sensation in my body
Getting up and walk if I am at home/work
Going to a calm room and breathe
Focus my attention to my breath for a few minutes
Repeating to myself: everything is going to be ok, this situation will pass, what is really important is taking care of myself

I’ve been practicing my stress control all the week long and I realized that the breath part was really working, and the great advantage of the breath is that you can do it everywhere! And you cannot go for a walk as often as you want!

As a example, I took a plane this week, only a two hours flight from México City to Cancún. But it’s a long weekend in Mexico so the airport was crowded, and they had to close it for a couple of hours for a reason I don’t know. As a consequence our flight was delayed one hour. But I was ok, I went for a walk, tried to open my mind and let the emotions flowing away.

They finally called us, we got on the plane, sit down and… wait again. 24 people didn’t make it and we were forced to wait for them! No place to go and walk, nothing to do… my mind started to wander. My heartbeat increased and I began to feel worried. Because I didn’t want to spend more time waiting, because I had the sensation of wasting a vacation day, I was almost in a bad mood. But I didn’t want that. So I closed my eyes and I started with the breath. Long deep breaths, focusing on my stomach which is the part that resent stress more painfully. I calmed down a little bit. I was feeling better, and I knew what could make me feel even better. My daily calm app. I chose a meditation focused on happiness and gratitude. And I felt grateful, for being in a plane to Cancun with my mom who I love so much. For having such a supportive boyfriend who is truly happy for me when I decide to do something for myself. For YogaMooc which is a great yoga experience and I feel lucky and special to be in the program. And feeling grateful for so much blessings in my like helped working through the wait and the supposed waste of time.

So yes, breathing and meditating are more than helpful when feeling stressed.

Breath, don’t stress and be well, always.

Week 3 Post: Reflection on my goal

My primary goal is to learn about Yoga. And I have learned a lot during this 3 weeks.

For this week assignment, as we have to reflect on our goal, I tried to go deeper, to find out if there was something else.

 So I asked myself: why do I want to learn about yoga?

My answer: because I want to be more healthy, to feel better and to adopt a new life routine.

 Q: Why do I need yoga to achieve this goal? Other sports and activities also could make me feel better?

A: because I don´t want to focus only on my body, I want to work on my mind and body. And also because I love Yoga postures, I love the way they look and I love the way they make me feel.

Q: Ok, so I know now why Yoga. But there´s so many way to learn Yoga, why YogaMooc?

A: Because it is a EDX course, and I think it is a great platform and I will be able to get a certificate. And also because it is a 6 weeks course and I want to see myself finish the 6 weeks according to my new weekly activities (details in week 1 post).

Thanks to this exercise (this written version is actually a summary of what happened in my mind during all week), I now know that I actually have 3 goals:

  1.  To Learn
  2. To prove myself that I can finish something
  3. To be able to realize nice postures

And for this week, I can say I achieve my goal 😛

  1.  I learned about the science of Yoga and got a 100% to the exam
  2. I finished all the assignments of this week: lectures, posters, meditations, yoga class, weekly post on my blog (regarding compassion meditation)
  3. I enjoyed the postures, especially the planks. They made me feel stronger!

Svalbard, Norway. Perfect meditation spot?

Last summer, we went on a 3 weeks trip to Norway and we spent 5 days in Svalbard, Norway. Svalbard is a archipelago of the Arctic Ocean, and I like to call it the Norwegian North Pole since it is situated from 74° to 81° North latitude. We spent most of the time in Longyearbyen, 78° North.

I will talk longer about this trip in other posts, but, since I am currently enrolled in #YogaMooc course, I wanted to share an experience.

First of all, Svalbard is an amazing place. There´s nothing there (or almost nothing), but the sensation of energy is really powerful. I often say that you don’t go to Svalbard to do or to see things, you go to Svalbard to be in Svalbard. In Svalbard, you are constantly in a contemplation mode. People is quiet, takes the time. It felt weird at the beginning. Moreover, in August (until August 24th), you have no night in Svalbard. Experiencing Polar Day was one of the best moment of my whole life.

I wasn’t practicing Yoga nor Meditation when I was there. My interest for Yoga and Meditation began in Sept/Oct 2017, (and is stronger and stronger every day, mainly thanks to #YogaMooc and my Daily Calm App). Meditation is not an easy activity, it takes time and consistency to be able to stay focus and aware. Nowadays I am meditating every day.

So, if I wasn’t meditating in Svalbard, why did I name this post “Svalbard, Norway. Perfect meditation spot?” Because, very often, when I am meditating, Svalbard “calls me”. I know it sounds crazy, but the image of the island appears in my head and I can feel all the sensations I experimented there. There´s something about Svalbard. This is a place where Nature and animals came first, a place with few people, where you can be yourself and forget everything you know. In Svalbard, you are practicing mindfulness even if you have no idea of what mindfulness is. Indeed, I now believe that the weird sensation I was talking about a moment ago was actually awareness.

Just so you know, I am not a “cold climate person”. I live in Mexico, I love spending time on the beach, a sunny day can make me the happiest girl in the world… So I wasn’t expected at all feeling the way I felt during my North Pole holidays!

And now, I am planning another trip to Svalbard for next year, on late October, since I want now to experience Polar Night. I want to spend most of my time there practicing Yoga and meditate (and I hope I´ll see the Northern lights). I believe I really could use a week or two off to be with myself, to take care of myself and to reload myself with the energy of the Earth.

Be Well.

 

 

Compassion Meditation: Is it possible to feel nothing about somebody?

One of my friend´s dad died a few days ago. I felt very bad because I knew her father, I met him a few months ago when she got married. He was such a nice man, elegant, very distinguished and classy… I was truly sad when she told me he was gone.

So, that night, I decided to meditate, and focus on compassion, practicing the #YogaMooc compassion meditation. The “people you love” part was amazing. I was thinking about my friend, sending her all my positive thoughts, my energy. A very powerful moment. The “people you have resentment against”  seemed also easy and I felt relieve after.

But the “people you don´t like or dislike” was just impossible. I tried to think about somebody I hardly know but even the man who packed my food at the grocery store a few days before was not neutral to me. It seems that at the very moment I meet/talk/see somebody I know if I like or dislike him/her. I am not judging, I hope it is not because I am a judgmental person, I just feel something for somebody very soon. Too soon?

And the true is I haven´t realized that before practicing this meditation.

I will now practice awareness every time I meet someone, to understand why I feel this way, where does it come from. I have no idea if someone else feels this way but it was something to me and I do want to figure it out.

Week 2 post: living in a digital world

  • During this week 2 of YogaMooc, we focused on well-being, digital technology, awareness regarding our use of this technology.

    To me, digital technology is a treasure, the way we communicate nowadays was just unimaginable 50 years ago. But, digital technology has a dark side and it can also be a huge waste of time.

    Awareness is a goal I want to pursue for every aspect of my life. Because I want my life to be meaningful and I think that we need to be aware of what we are doing to live our life completely.
    That´s why I think it is really important to focus first on analyzing my use of social media, smartphone so I will know when it is profitable for me and when I should be able no to lose myself in it.

    So I decided to describe a typical day of a typical week of my life and I realized that I am using my phone almost all the day, and when not, it´s generally because I am using my laptop. So I asked myself, is it THAT bad using so much phone and most of the time, the response is no; I am using my phone for very different purposes, because smartphones are now able to replace so many other objects.

    To sum up, I´ll say that I use my phone to:

    Get up (Alarm clock)
    Send mails & messages (Computer)
    Be sure I’ m taking the shortest route to work (GPS)
    Listen my Podcasts (Radio)
    Listen music while exercise (MP3 player)
    Meditate (Daily Calm App)
    Practice Yoga (EDx App, Daily Yoga App)
    Check the weather
    Take pictures (Camera)
    Connect to facebook, twitter

    I realized that I do not connect so much to social medias, I normally check Facebook twice a day for 20 minutes and they are also a distraction when I have to wait (elevators, bank).

    I really liked this exercise, by trying to become more aware of my use of technology, I actually began to be more aware of all the activities of my day.

    I have been very committed to my Yoga Practice and YogaMooc Exercises. As I was saying last week, my goal is to learn about yoga, in order to understand the bases and principles of Yoga and incorporate them in my daily routine. So my weekly commitment is to finish the YogaMooc week and generate new habits and a new routine.

    Last week, I began studying one hour after lunch: lectures, guest interviews… Then, at night, I included some Yoga practice and before going to bed, I meditate for 20 minutes.

    This week, in addition, I began being more aware of my activities, sometimes it is really difficult to do so, so it was great to focus first on my smartphone use. Regarding wiring the pause, I was already doing some breathe pause (thanks to mi Apple watch). I am trying to breath for one minute every hour. It helps me a lot with my anxiety and when I feel really stressed.

    It takes some time getting used with something new and as I was saying last week it can be really hard because our lives seems to be so full already. That´s why, being more aware, being more conscious about our activities and time spent will help us (maybe) focusing on what really matters and what is important to us.

Week 1 post: setting goal(s) and feeling better?

I really love setting goals and writing all kind of lists. I’ve been doing it my whole life.

So you can imagine that my today’s “YogaMooc” made me feel pretty good, and it was a nice reward after a tough week. I’ve been practicing yoga for a few weeks now but the Full Yoga Class was actually a physical challenge. I’ve done the class on Monday night and I did not feel so well but I know that everything will be better soon.

My blog is not only about Yoga, it is about a lot of changes I am doing in my life right now, and that’s why I know that it is always challenging to start a new activity, not only because it means “learning something knew” but also because we’ll have to change our daily routine. And setting goals is very helpful when beginning a new routine.

So I had a difficult time with the Yoga Class. But I really enjoyed the Meditation part.  And I’ ve learned a lot this week.  And learning about Yoga is my goal.

So here we are. My goal is: TO LEARN, in order to understand YOGA, in order to do it well! I already know that Yoga will make me feel better, like I said, it is not my first attempt with Yoga, I went to Yoga classes and it was a nice experience and I felt great after the class but it was not enough. Like for many other things in my life I need to understand the principle and bases. So I arranged my daily routine:

  •  After lunch, I connect to Edx plateform and focus on my class: video, lectures. I write down essential points.
  • Every night at home, I am doing the practical exercises: guided meditation, yoga class etc. I am also using 2 apps, Daily Yoga and Daily Calm, so sometimes I do a Yoga or Meditation session from the apps.
  • Every morning, I write down my sensations, all that I´d like to share.
  • During weekends, I sum up all that I have learned and I prepare my weekly post for the blog. I read the complementary lectures suggested and I finish with the evaluation and a quick review of the assignments to be sure I´ve been doing everything 🙂

As I was saying at the beginning, to me, making list is like a second nature. So I have a list of all the activities I need to perform within 2 o 3 months, for example changing the wheels of my car, planning my Mom´s birthday or buying some boxes to store better my clothes (real examples lol). Then I have a monthly excel file  with my daily activities. One column is for professional tasks and this another one is for personal tasks. At the beginning of the day I review my to do list and I cross the tasks out when they are done. Before leaving the office I prepare/update my to do list for the next day. It works pretty well but it’s true that sometimes I cannot finish everything, so it´s not only important to SET GOAL but also PRIORITIZE the activities. Goals and priorities are always changing, for example a few weeks ago, Yoga was one of my activities but it was not a priority. Now it is one of my first priority since I really want to finish the course and get a certificate and LEARN as much as I can (I’ve seen that the course will finish on December 3rd so there´s just no time to postpone anything if I want to pursue my goal).

Setting goals and planning your life will make you feel better and accomplish so more things. But don’ t forget that everything can evolve, goals can be adjusted and priorities will change; listen to yourself always.

Be well.